7 replies to this topic

[dskippy]

Hey everyone,

I just recently finished a pretty standard Rainbow with a 1-1/4" PVC plunger tube, [k26] spring, 6" of draw, and 11" CPVC barrel. I'm getting about 110 feet on elite darts with it but they are rather inaccurate and fishtail a lot. I've been told that this is a limitation of the stock darts that I'm up against. For the time being I'm not interested in making my own darts and I'd like to stick to the stock darts. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a configuration that will give me good performance but not over power the darts.

I'm considering a Rainbow Pistol with 1-1/4" plunger tube and half of a [k26] spring but I'm not really sure since I haven't tried it.

I'm also interested in what configuration folks are using for darts with larger heads, like the suction cup darts or the velcro taggers. I'm interested in making a front loader for these, probably a pistol-sized gun, and I'm wondering what kind of air volumes and barrel tightness people are using for these as well.

Thanks,
-mike

[Carbon]

The cause of fishtailing is too much air behind a dart. When the dart leaves the barrel, the extra pressure puffs out behind it, causing a fishtail. So, you need to bleed off some of that extra pressure/air volume.

Probably the best way to dial back the power on your rainbow would be to make a custom barrel with some built-in inefficiencies (i.e. holes). All you need to do is drill a few very small holes in the barrel to bleed off some air volume before the dart leaves the barrel. You can do this clustered at the very end of the barrel, or use a few smaller holes at the base. Experiment....and take care to not leave any burrs in the holes.

As far as your second question, suction head darts work well in .5" sch40 PCV.

[Nerfgirl36]

I personally use stefans, but I know some people fill the tip of elites with hot glue. It eliminates the little air hole, but it also inflicts more pain. It is more accurate but if you are more for safe darts, I wouldnt do it. Just my 2 cents..

[Kronos Nerf Mods]

If you don't care about pain, add some metal BB's to the tip, and fill the rest with hot glue.

[Just582]

IMO, it is not even worth it to build a homemade for stock darts. It would be worth your while if you plan to use stefans later on, and you could switch to a "Stefan" barrel when you stop using a ported barrel for elites like carbon suggested. I think elite blasters with a omw 5kg spring or a nite finder with a omw 4kg are the best blasters for using stock darts. Modified blasters are much more comfortable and with modified elite blasters like the retaliator or EAT, are clip fed, fire faster, and are all around better than a homemade designed to shoot at lower speeds. A rainbow pistol might work with stock darts though. I have built two plusbows and three rainbowpumps, but I still prefer my modded retaliator in nearly any war.

[Some Guy]

You could just use it as a "shotgun" to make up for the inaccuracy. Just stuff a few whistlers, taggers or suction cup darts into sch. 40 1/2" PVC. Need more RoF? Make it a speedloader or breach.

~SG

[KaneTheMediocre]

I'm biased, but I think something along these lines:
http://nerfhaven.com...=1
is the best you can do for stock darts, and in particular large headed (suction cup, tagger, sonic, etc) ammunition.

Streamlines and elites are unstable at high speeds, although elites remain useable at higher speeds than their predecessors. Most of the ammo with a ~5/8" head remains stable at much higher speeds than other stock darts, and thanks to greater weight and better aerodynamics, can actually outrange most felt-padded darts like slugs and AMIORS when fired in an arc.

The large head, unfortunately, makes barrels difficult. If you want a tight 3" barrel, then you can press the stem into CPVC or another tight barrel material, but this is difficult and often time consuming to reload in play and reduces range and accuracy compared to a longer barrel. It is probably your best bet if you want a sidearm / homemade nitefinder equivalent.

For a primary blaster, the benefits to range and accuracy make a long barrel preferable, and this means the materials have to fit the head, not the stem. There are not any effective tight-fitting barrels for the dart head, but there are effective loose barrels for this (1/2" EMT conduit is best, but 1/2" PVC will work). If you want much power from a loose barrel, you can't use a springer, and you are best off using a HAMP or a blowgun. The BATS feed mechanism works great with blowguns and HAMPS alike if you're looking for better refire rate or a bigger project. There are such thing as hoppers for taggers, like this:
http://nerfhaven.com...=1
but they don't have the reliability of conventional wye hoppers with hopper-friendly homemade ammo.

[FountainPenFan]

While perhaps not the best overall homemade, blowguns are quite fun to use and likely the easiest to make. I recall getting the 100ft ranges you mention with a four foot long piece of 1/2" Sch40 PVC, practice, and stock tagger darts (which can be had at Toys-r-us, since Target doesn't carry them anymore.) You can get decent RoF by having a handful of darts in one hand ready to load and simply feeding them after each shot. Blowguns are also extremely quiet compared to most blasters I've heard, making it harder for an opponent to dodge (you can even slide a 4 inch or so long piece of pool noodle over the muzzle of a blowgun for even quieter shots.) You can shotgun 2-3 darts at 50ft ranges (taggers, PVC) without much difficulty. Probable cons are moving the relatively long barrel around indoors (though a recent test with an 18" PVC barrel and stock buzz-bee suction darts got roughly 50ft ranges, so shorter barrels are an option) and the requirement of not being terribly out of breath to fire. I plan on making a bolt action, magazine fed wood frame/PVC barrel blowgun after finals this week.